by Ethan Johnson
May 12, 2007

This game was broadcast in stunningly awful 480i on Fox Sports Net, not that I'm complaining since I couldn't be at the game. But seriously? I thought Univision and Telefutura had picture quality issues until tonight. Oof. Let's go live to the DVR (spoilers follow):

First, I'd like to take a moment to congratulate Toronto FC on their win earlier today over the Chicago Fire. Their first-ever goal was scored by Dichio, and after TFCs stunning yet disappointing home opener where he was one of the few bright spots, I was happy for them that he punched the first goal through. They're still doomed, though. (Grin.)

On to the main event. This game marked the return of Dario Sala at goalkeeper (GK) after a 6-game suspension. During the 2006 playoffs, he got scored on, sat on the turf, got up, and popped one of the opposing players in the face. The fan faithful have been grousing about Shaka Hislop (my guy), and after today's triumphant return I have to say I'm totally on the Sala bandwagon. Wow.

The fan faithful kept saying that stuff that Hislop missed would have been easy pickings for Sala. Ohhhh yeah. Spectacular saves left and right.

FC Dallas got on the board twice in the first half, with goals by Cooper and Toja. Toja was a quick fan favorite and I expect to see his bronze likeness outside of Pizza Hut Park on May 20th when I get back to the stadium for the game against Salt Lake. Toja is exciting, and now Pablo Ricchetti joined the club from Argentina, bringing more of that South American flavor I like to see in my soccer games.

Sala wasn't completely invincible, despite my hope that FCD would play to a shutout. KC snuck a goal shot past Sala in a way that soesn't make me fault Sala, but shake my head at the KC player and mutter, "lucky skunk!" FC Dallas defeated KC, 2-1. Cha-ching!

The last 20-ish minutes of the game bothered me, because whether intentionally or accidentally, FCD settled in to a purely defensive mode that kept them on their heels while KC kept chipping away at FCDs half of the field. Not the best way to burn game clock while trying to protect a shutout. Which brings me to today's "new thing that you learned about soccer" minute:

Soccer, like Cricket, is a game where offense and defense occur simultaneously, unlike other sports. For example, in Cricket, the batsman has two objectives: Score, and don't get "out". The batsman can ostensibly spend the entire at-bat time not getting out. Since there are no foul balls, and so forth, merely tapping the ball into the dirt means not getting out. No scoring happens either, but the batsman has another shot at scoring, as opposed to being called "out" and unable to contribute anymore. Thus: Offense in Cricket means scoring, whereas defense (at bat) means not getting "out". Got it?

In soccer, this means that anything that isn't a shot on goal is essentially defensive, until it isn't. Passing the ball from one player to another can result in attempting to string together a series of offense-minded plays leading to a goal attempt, or the ball can be deliberately sent into the backfield for some defensive "keep away". The opposing players may opt to kick the ball out of bounds, which gives the offense-minded team the ball back, but it slows down their momentum and staves off any possible scoring attempts. To the casual observer, this makes soccer look disorganized and pointless, but by and large US audiences aren't accustomed to offense and defense happening simultaneously. Perhaps a close example of this for US sports fans is when an NFL team is winning by a large margin and they "just" hand the ball off repeatedly figuring they'll just burn clock time and preserve the win. But if a team was guaranteed a playoff spot and made no attempt to score whatsoever for 4 quarters, US audiences wouldn't sit still for that. In soccer and cricket these sorts of things can and do happen - especially soccer. Kinda gives new meaning to "it's their game to lose."

Or imagine an NFL running back trying to break away with a touchdown run, seeing that he's going to be stopped, and running 90 yards in the opposite direction just to burn time off of the clock. Due to the nature of NFL football, that player would be in the NFL Not For Long. But it prevented the other team from possibly stripping the ball away, didn't it?

Summed up: Soccer is a blend of scoring (oh happy day!) and not scoring (deee-fense). In the MLS, draws give both teams 1 point in the standings, whereas a win is 3, and a loss 0. Skating by on draws can make a team seem reasonably competent, but outright wins are more advantageous from a ranking perspective. Besides, playoff and championship games cannot be scored as a draw. Best to have winning in your collective skill set.

Class dismissed. Who is going with me to the FC Dallas/Real Salt Lake game on May 20th? <EM>

(Much, much more virtual ink has been spilled by me about Major League Soccer. The fledgling but growing MLS article archive may be found here.)